I watched the Hobie Island Club video on the hobie front page and was surprised to see a dude wake boarding (or surfing) behind a TI. I know that this is possible, but was wondering if anyone has tried it.

I have 3 small kids who love to drag behind our TI and was thinking that with a tow rope and a knee board we could have more fun. Any thoughts? Any suggestions? Dos? amd donts? Any videos?

With the right wind it's very easy - the bigger the board - or the lighter the kid you're pulling the better, a short board and a big guy won't work... but a long board it will - for kids if they're little guys a knee board will probably okay too.... try it out and post a video!

I am really excited about this for my kids. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to tie on for something like this? Will the place that the mainsheet pulley is attached (small stainless half-loop) work? It seems like tying to an aka would be easiest, but would be likely to break the shear pin.

The video is of a couple of the guys from Fast Lane Sailing in San Diego and they were using a smallish SUP. I believe they had the rope (tie down straps) tied off to the rear crossbar. The wind was pretty good at about 15 or so that day and they were cruising easily. Big board is key to get going. It doesn't take too much to get a SUP on a plane.

Thanks for the reply, Bcastile. We have a small foam thing, I think it may be called a boogie board. It has a leash, that i will replace with a rope. My kids are in the 50 lb. range. We're gonna give it a try next week. The wind in OK is never in short supply. I'll report back my results!

We have twin honda 2.3 engines mounted on our TI and often tow dive equipment in a 4 person inflatable raft, and sometimes people, and inflatable and rigid kayaks behind our TI out to dive sites in the keys. Actually the equipment raft tows remarkably well, you can't tell it's back there. It's not like a ski boat or even close. Basically we travel at around 8mph when all loaded down in light winds, of course if I have nice trade winds we can go faster with all of our 260 sq ft of sail up, but then again my boat is massively modified and tricked out specifically for our own personal use so it doesn't compare well to a stock TI.Where we live we don't get a lot of wind, and the areas we try to cover in SW Florida and the keys are massive so we modified our TI to suit our own purposes, that's all.In my opinion the TI is the best family boat available today, if you live near the ocean and use the boat a lot, an outboard in my opinion is a viable option. A stock 4 stroke 2.5 hp outboard with a stock prop will get you to around 5-6 mph. We have Honda 2.3 motors on ours (I really like the Honda).I doubt very much anyone agrees with anything I say and do, but I don't really care what anyone else thinks, the boat serves our purposes perfectly.Bob

Have all you guys in USA shut down for winter?Seems unusually quiet on the forum when I have to look at open kayaking for new posts

Anyway, I recently towed two kyaks, down a creek for 6 Nm.Due to overhanging branches, we didn't have the sail but a 3Hp petrol (noisy) outboard.As you can see, the (not so young) kids had fun in their non versatile ordinary kayaks.

We also run a competition for the kids where they are in the water and let go ofthe bow and we pedal like mad and try and leave them behind before they grab thelast aka. They think it is just a game and not us trying to get some peace and leavethem in the middle of the lake to swim back

I'm certainly not shut down, its sunny and 74-86 F here in Austin, taking the Revo 13 out today.

Bob do you find that an inflatable raft is a better tow craft for gear than using another smaller kayak ? I previously owned a zodiac type boat and remember they are very stable, almost stick to the water. I'm wondering if using my Revo 13 behind a future TI would be too likely to capsize at the end of a tow rope if hit by a large boat wake ? I saw someone has rigged a second kayak under their akas as a sidecar. I'm wondering if the Revo 13 could do the same thing with a TI without a lot of modifications ?Of course I have to leave room on one side for the future Honda

I'm not shut down either, I've been out every Saturday now since July 4th and the weather and water temps are still still making for comfortable sailing without any need to wear anything more then board shorts.

We'll be having our annual Santana winds soon that really get the hot offshore winds cranking in high gear.

Actually, this is the best time of the year to be out on the water in So. Cal.